100,000+ ticket applications for Women's World Cup

England Hockey is very proud to announce that more than 100,000 tickets were applied for in the ballot for the Hockey Women’s World Cup London 2018, which closed on Wednesday night.

With the capacity at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre to be more than doubled, all of England’s pool matches, potential quarter final, semi final and final are going to completely sell out, some eleven months before the event takes place. This is another demonstration of hockey’s rapidly increasingly profile in recent years, which shows no signs of slowing down.

This level of demand is truly astounding, both for hockey and crucially for women’s sport. With 2017 rightly seeing England’s women’s cricket and rugby teams capture the nation in their world cups, 2018 is set to see England’s women’s hockey team once again take centre stage in the public consciousness. In context, these 100,000 applications come on top of the 20,000 tickets already sold to the Hockey Family in a priority window earlier this year.

England Hockey chose to run a ticket ballot as the fairest way to allow as many people as possible to experience the event, and 50% of applications have never been to an international England Hockey event before, demonstrating the broad appeal of both the sport and events on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

With children’s tickets from just £1, 24% of tickets applied for are for under 18s. The event will have a true family focus, with the biggest Fan Zone that England Hockey have ever staged. With special midweek school sessions, and two-thirds of ticket applications from females, it will be arguably London’s most inclusive and family-friendly sporting event of 2018.We have received applications from more than 30 countries, and with non-England sessions making up 23% of demand, there will a fantastic atmosphere every day between Jul 21 and Aug 5 2018.

With England / Great Britain women’s teams having won major international medals for nine years in a row, and with 10,000 new players in hockey clubs since the gold medal in Rio, hockey’s rise continues apace both on and off the field.

England women’s team captain Alex Danson said, "As a team we absolutely cannot wait for the World Cup on home soil, and to have this much demand with almost a year to go is amazing. To know that every England pool game is already sold out is a huge fillip for the squad and we cannot wait to put on a show for our supporters."

FIH (International Hockey Federation) CEO Jason McCracken commented, "We are delighted to hear about the huge demand for tickets for the Hockey Women’s World Cup London 2018. As part of our 10-year Hockey Revolution strategy we are constantly striving for all of our events to be 'Big, Bold, Packed and Loud’, and with 100,000 ticket applications as part of the public ballot it is clear that the competition at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre next summer looks likely to be all of those things and more."

England Hockey Commercial Director Jonathan Cockcroft said, “This level of demand is truly unprecedented, and we are delighted to be in this position with eleven months to go, especially with England games, quarter final, semi final and final all sold out after a very well-delivered marketing campaign. In particular, we are very pleased to have reached so many people who have never been to our events before. The scale of the tournament and the atmosphere created by supporters will be exceptional and not to be missed. We are also seeing increased demand from brands who recognise the size of the platform, and we are hugely excited about the opportunities ahead for our sport.”

Supporters who have applied for tickets in the ballot will be notified by the end of September whether they have been successful or not. Later in the year, a general sale will take place around the announcement of the complete tournament schedule, dates to be confirmed.Hospitality packages will be available from September, and this will now be the only way to secure England, semi final or finals tickets. Contact hospitality@englandhockey.co.uk to register interest in premium tickets for the event.

Partnership opportunities are currently available, offering an association with this massive world level event in front of a huge global audience – contact graham.swanson@englandhockey.co.uk.

In order to successfully deliver the ticket ballot campaign, England Hockey worked with all of our event partners; the FIH, Lee Valley Regional Authority, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Mayor of London’s Office and UK Sport. England Hockey led its marketing with a 'Pure Hockey Gold' campaign, developed by creative agency Matta. Alongside targeted email marketing and social media activity, the campaign featured outdoor advertising in London and an online advertising campaign delivered by digital agency WePlay. See Tickets has also developed an effective long term partnership with England Hockey as its ticketing provider.